Negotiating truth, freedom and self: the prison narratives of some South African women

Abstract:

Analyses the autobiographical prison writings of four South African women- Ruth First, Caesarina Kona Makhoere, Emma Mashinini and Maggie Resha. The use of authenticating devices, such as documentary-like prose, and the inclusion in numerous texts of the stories of others, is discussed. Asserting oneself as a (publicly acknowledged) subject in writing is particularly difficult for women who historically have been denied access to authority. It is argued that prison writing breaks the legal and psychological silences imposed by a hostile penal system. In a context of political repression the notion of the truth becomes complicated. The struggle to represent oneself in the inimical environment of prison and the redemptive value in doing so are considered. The institution of imprisonment as a means of silencing political dissidence targets the body, according to Michel Foucault's theories of discipline and control. Attention is paid to the specificities of female bodies which are positioned and controlled in particular ways; while anatomical differences provide the rationale for racism and sexism, the body is also an instrument for resisting negative cultural significations. Following the work of human geographers, it is that space and subjectivity are mutually constitutive, as shown by the way spatial metaphors operate in prison texts. Elaine Scarry's insights into torture are extended to encompass psychological torture and sexual harassment. For those historical subjects who have found themselves without a legally valued identity and a platform from which to articulate the challenge of their experience, writing a personal narrative may offer an invaluable chance to assert a truth, to reclaim a self and a credibility and in that way to create a kind of freedom.